1,275 PETER HOOK AND THE LIGHT (2 Sets), Frome Cheese And Grain, Saturday 29th April 2023

 

A slow gig month of April is nonetheless ending on a high note, with the welcome return of a bona fide rock legend… having run the gamut of the entire Joy Division/ New Order canon of releases that he was involved in, it seems Mancunian post-punk icon Peter Hook is circling right back to the beginning, going through the dark, dramatic goth-tinged moody post-punk of his first band once again! Happy with that, the man’s always been more than good value whatever he chooses to play… and given that this fell on a Saturday night, this gave me the currently rare opportunity to bring my full-on GCSE-mode teenage son along for a break in his studies, to further an altogether different kind of education. When I first played Logan “Love Will Tear Us Apart”, his response on hearing this seminal all-time classic was, “so this song wasn’t so much written, more like handed down from God…” so I think the boy gets it…!

 Also joining us were old friends and fellow JD/NO devotees Colin and Paul, Colin picking us up at 6 for the first gig we’d travelled to together for nearly 40 years (Orange Juice at Golddiggers in 1984, gig 22!). Mused about this disgraceful state of affairs and other topics, during a meandering yet pleasant drive through Wiltshire’s backroads, parking up and grabbing a drink in this old corn market hall’s beer garden. Popped into the venue 10 minutes before the support, happily finding a pocket of space near the front, house right. As is his wont, Hooky was supporting himself, leading the band onstage at 8 and proclaiming, “we’ve tried something different on this tour; we’ve let each one of the band pick [the support] set-list! This is Paul’s turn…” Said list was a New Order selection, and Paul absolutely nailed the choice, with the pounding backbeat and change of pace of opener “The Him”, followed by the clattering synth pattern and eerie melodica overlay of “Movement”’s “Truth” and a beautifully plaintive and understated “Leave Me Alone”. Things really ramped up a few gears thereafter, though, with an unexpected “Blue Monday”, a stately “True Faith” and a bubbling, buoyant and singalong “Temptation” to round off a splendid half hour vignette, all delivered with sweeping authority by Hooky and the lads. Superb stuff… and that was just the opening set…!

 Our spot down the front got busier and more sauna-esque, as we were also joined by gig buddy Paul (from last year’s War On Drugs gig, no. 1,219); I took a comfort break at 8.45 and got caught out by Hooky re-taking the stage for the “Unknown Pleasures” rendition, powering into a fast, frantic and frankly incendiary “Disorder”. “Day Of The Lords”, next up, was replete with seething menace, Hooky growling the, “when will it end,” hook with imperious command, conducting the crowd with outstretched arm. The widescreen dark epic “New Dawn Fades” was however my highlight, Hooky raising his usually low, gravelly and stentorian vocals one octave for the genuinely affecting second verse. “Shadowplay” and “Interzone” were tense, taut proto-punk thrashes, with closer “I Remember Nothing” (a track I often struggle with, finding it a leaden plod) faring better “live”, all morose claustrophobia, reflecting those uneasy cold war 70’s times.

 Another brief break before the band returned, the tumbling drum pattern of “Atrocity Exhibition” heralding the “Closer” run-through. This was actually the first time I’d seen Hooky do Joy Division’s sophomore effort, an album I confess I know less well than its’ predecessor, and I was surprised how more synth-based the sound was, particularly on the expansive twinkling Eurodisko of “Isolation”, the regimented, almost funky stomp of “Means To An End” and the church organ wall of sound of “Closer”’s closer, the elegiac “Decades”. Definite nods towards the direction New Order were to ultimately take, although my “Closer” highlight was the taut, jagged and razor-sharp “Colony”, ironically the one track which would have fit most aptly on “Unknown Pleasures”… And, of course, all were delivered with superb purpose and conviction by Hooky and Co., the man turning his back to the crowd at “Decade”’s climax, signalling his approval with one arm aloft, before leaving the band to a lengthy and rapturously-received crescendo.

 They’d saved the best until last, however; the encore saw Hooky thank everyone on this, the last night of the tour, before an undulating, punky “Digital” ceded to the bass riff opening of a brilliant “Ceremony”, Hooky stripping the sound right back for the middle 8 breakdown before the haunting denouement, A hurtling “Transmission” followed, before the inevitable highlight of the night, a gloriously skyscraping rendition of “Love Will Tear Us Apart”, handed down by God and his strafing bass. Just magnificent. Hooky then cast his t-shirt to the masses before departing, then Logan and I grabbed a list and met the boys back at the car, home at midnight. A high note to end April, indeed, with the enduring legend that is Peter Hook!